Type in style – install an upgraded window to the shell
The terminal is the beating heart of Linux, no matter how hard today’s user-friendly graphical distros might try to push it into the background. If you need something done quickly and efficiently, chances are the best way to do it is with some complex keyboard wrangling. Exactly what to type is beyond the scope of this article – check out our guide here to get yourself started.
The key, if you’re a terminal-slinging Linux badass , is making sure you type those commands with as much style and panache as possible. And while you’ll likely never be in a position where you’re not able to drop to a straight full-screen shell, having a quick window to the command line on your desktop is always handy.
Of course, you have one already – be it xterm, Gnome Shell, Konsole, or whatever ‘Terminal’ application your chosen distro has bundled in – but this probably isn’t as good as your terminal emulator could be. So let’s refresh your view of those plain old white-on-black characters, as we point out our top six Linux terminal emulators.
Who needs system resources anyway? If you have a bunch of CPU cycles and graphics processing power that needs using up, you’re sure to get a kick out of Cool Retro Term. It emulates the look of a really old-school cathode ray screen, complete with phosphor glow, burn-in, and bloom around the characters. If you cut your teeth with the monochrome screens of the early eighties, this is a nostalgic (and highly customisable) trip back to the past.
You can even select between a number of character sets, evoking memories of (for example) the all-caps Apple II, as well as selecting between a number of colours to replicate the amber warmth of classic Zenith monitors, or a rarely-used but nonetheless beautiful cyan.
While the usefulness of some of its features is questionable – particularly the optional screen jitter replicating a slightly dodgy signal cable, and some of the older fonts – Cool Retro Term (or CRT, get it?) is a beautiful toy to play with.
This terminal emulator, crafted specifically for Gnome, takes inspiration from classic shooter Quake. You might have inferred that from its name – but it doesn’t throw Shamblers in your path, offer you quad or mega-health power-ups, or even come branded with Quake’s classic brown-on-brown colour scheme, thankfully.
